Probably the most glaring issue with our website has been the ability to easily browse the contents of the database to find any given waterfall. For years we had been meaning to address the issue but simply never got a chance to for whatever reason (and many of them not very good at that). Well we’ve finally been able to do something about it, and today marks the launch of our new Mapping tool.

With this new system you will be able to browse the entire contents of our database in a Google Maps window. To start, this is limited only to browsing by any given country – and in certain cases States or Provinces within that country (currently this only applies to the United States, Canada, and Australia, but will expand in the future). In the future we plan on adding the ability to display search results and Top 100 lists on the map, and expand on the flexibility of the system further.

We haven’t exactly been very vigilant about posting updates here over the last six months, but long time readers may have come to expect that sort of inconsistency. Usually that that means is we’ve been working tirelessly…well, maybe almost tirelessly… on getting more content prepared and rolling out new features for the website. So, in honor of the holiday season, here’s our present to our readers:

With these updates we now have data for 36 out of 50 states, and brings our grand total of waterfalls in the United States (so far) up to a whopping 10,919, and when all is said and done we expect that number to climb closer to 14,000 (and of course, it will continue to grow as we find and inventory more and more waterfalls).

In addition to the United States coverage, we also added data for 492 waterfalls in Iceland, about eighty of which we had the opportunity to survey back in August. To date we’ve posted reports on about half of those, and the remaining reports (as well as pictures) will be posted when we can get around to them.

Lastly, in addition to continuously adding more data, we’ve been working on overhauling some of the systems that power the website. We’ve got some much needed changes in the pipeline that we hope to have launched by the end of the year. If you follow us on Facebook (which you should), you may have seen mention of a new mapping system coming down the line. Well it’s getting close. I can’t say exactly when it will be ready, because there are a couple other dependencies that have to be finished first. But it’s coming. Soon. I’m not going to spoil the surprise, but I will say that it will make navigating and searching for waterfalls in the database infinitely easier right off the bat, and will allow us some much needed expansion capability in the future as well. Stay tuned.

The upper basin of the Iguacu River in Brazil has seen prolonged heavy rain recently, which has caused the Iguacu River to swell to previously unheard of proportions. Iguacu Falls, which lies on the border between Brazil and Argentina, is currently in a spate that has absolutely shattered its previous record levels. In 1992 the river reached a flow of 36,000 cubic meters – or 1.27 million cubic feet – of water flowing over the falls every second. Today the river is said to have peaked out at 46,800 cubic meters – or 1.65 million cubic feet – of water every second. That’s approximately 3 times as much water as the average flow of the Mississippi River, and 5 times as much as the St. Lawrence River below Lake Ontario. In fact, that’s more water every second than the average volume of any other river on earth except for the Amazon! That’s so much water that the lower tier of the 269 foot tall falls was almost entirely submerged from the water backing up in the gorge.

Michigan is not a state that one may immediately assume to be a destination for waterfall hunting. This is certainly understandable given that the majority of the state is really, really flat – the state’s high point is a paltry 1,709 feet above sea level, and lowest point is the surface of Lake Erie at 571 feet above sea level. Considering the majority of the population of Michigan lives on the lower peninsula, its rather understandable that not many of its residence may be aware of the cornucopia of waterfalls which can be found in the state.

All but two of Michigan’s 272 recorded waterfalls occur on its upper peninsula – though technically there are three entries in the database for the lower peninsula, but one of them is not considered to be a legitimate waterfall. Despite the generally flat terrain, the geology of Michigan’s upper peninsula is very conducive to the formation of waterfalls along its many streams and rivers. Though there are only about 16 waterfalls in the state known to drop more than 50 feet (three of which are over 100 feet tall), there are literally dozen and dozens of smaller falls which are quite worthy of note. To accompany this situation however, there are also many features which have been granted the title of “Falls” over the years which in reality are not even remotely significant enough to be legitimately considered waterfalls.

Hotbed areas to target when planning on hunting down many of Michigan’s waterfalls include the Porcupine Mountains – especially the Black River and Presque Isle River corridors – the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore area around Munising, though in general pretty much anywhere within 5 miles of the shore of Lake Superior is a good place to look for waterfalls given the extremely prolific sandstone formations which can be found in the area.

So how about we start off the new year with a whole bunch of new waterfalls? To accompany the data set for Vermont which we posted about a month ago, we have recently completed uploading our data set for the state of New Hampshire, which currently details information on 364 waterfalls in The Granite State. Like most of the New England States, New Hampshire isn’t known for its waterfalls specifically, however there are many well known waterfalls scattered throughout the state that certainly throw their weight around as individual tourist destinations, in the White Mountains especially. Though generally the waterfalls in New Hampshire are on par with the rest of New England in terms of size, the geology of the state allows for a handful of surprisingly tall waterfalls to occur

Comparing the geology to neighboring Vermont presents an interesting contrast. While the mountains of Vermont are by and large made of metamorphic rocks, New Hampshire is dominated by Granitic forms of bedrock (the official state moniker does sort of hint to this). Not only are the mountains generally taller than in other neighboring states – Mount Washington itself being the tallest mountain in New England – but this added height has promoted a handful of waterfalls of substantial heights (albeit small volumes) to form, at least a handful of which stretch well over 500 feet tall.

The majority of New Hampshires waterfalls however are much smaller and more conducive to intimate encounters. Several of the most well known falls in the White Mountains have long romanticized histories relating to their unique and often fascinating geologic formations – The Basin, Avalanche Falls and The Flume Gorge, Diana’s Baths, and Sabbaday Falls to name a few. While the majority of the falls occur in and around the White Mountains, the southern half of the state is still fairly well represented itself, though with falls of much smaller stature. Several features named as waterfalls can be found along the larger rivers in this region, though many of these features are more frequently relevant as historic mill sites than they are legitimate waterfalls. But regardless of where you search, options abound.

We have full survey reports on quite a few waterfalls in New Hampshire, and have begin posting them immediately. It will take a while before they are all up, so expect to see quite a few waterfalls marked as Cataloged without detailed information for the time being. We hope to have much of this data filled in over the next two months, as time permits.

This site is designed for standards-compliant browsers and may not work correctly in Internet Explorer 6.
We strongly suggest using Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8 or newer.
Suggested minimum resolution 1024x768.